Charm looked at the four in front of her with interest, she and Jo already knew that they had that apparently expensive crystal to teleport them out, so she played dumb for the moment and from what Charm could see. It didn't look like the four were going to tell her and Jo about it, and were instead going to try and stall, or something else. Whichever it was, it didn't seem like they were going to be getting out of this place very easily, and Jo needed out and soon. Sure Charm wouldn't mind lending him her neck at any time, but he isn't comfortable with that so she'll have to wait until the situation calls for her to make him use her instead of waiting.  

"Um actually we do have a way of getting out, but even if you can speak, why should we trust a duo of monsters with it?" The girl in front carrying a circular shield and a bigger axe than she was used to seeing in the junk piles said, and Charm was surprised. They didn’t lie, well it was better for them that way, and from what Charm could tell Jo was only going to get worse and worse as time went on unless they could come to a compromise, or she just killed all three…Charm paused and questioned her own thoughts for a moment.  

Why would we need to kill them? Why did I even think of that? Is something happening to me that even I am unaware of? 

"How about me not killing all of you earlier?" She blurted before her mind could rescind the thought. Lexy was the one that was shocked this time, "While I am not fond of getting dropped into the middle of a human settlement like the way we are now. I don't seem to have any other choice because if you have been walking for a long time in this tunnel, then that means that it could go on for hours, days even in either direction. I know that Jo wouldn't be able to resist whatever craze he goes into when that Blood Count hits zero in a few hours. There's also the problem of who he's going to go after when it does hit zero, and sitting here only makes that time shorter."

Charm looked at the four humans and crossed her arms, yes she did have claws making it a little uncomfortable to do so, and yes she was a little shorter than most of them, but they still understood the point enough and the one with the staff held up her hand and with a small phrase and a flash of light two sets of clothes that looked big enough for both Charm and Jo to wear or hide in appeared on the ground. 

"We know what happens to one of the Blood Race when that bar hits zero, and I do not want to be a victim of the massacre they talk about in school." Amelia said dropping down to grab the clothes and holding them out to Charm. Who opened them and looked at each for a second, looking for anything that might be able to restrict or activate to capture them when we got to the surface. Seeing nothing glowing or dangerous to her and Jo's safety Charm deemed them good enough and handed one to Jo, but he was now starting to shiver and his markings were starting to visibly glow now in the light as well as the glow of his eyes and teeth having gotten brighter, so Charm helped put the cloak on him and then put hers on. They were a bit big for the both of them but they would have to do for now.

"Now what?" Charm growled at Amelia not looking away from the wolf she was worried about for even a moment and Ameila instructed everyone to hold hands. 

"I have never used one of these before, especially not on a hungry Blood variant so I don't know how teleportation will fare for him, but hopefully you will be able to control him long enough until we reach a Blood Bank in the City." Amelia said and after putting a paw on and a paw on Jo, who was struggling with an urge that he didn't understand, Charm urged Amelia on. She then said a short chant and the crystal shone brightly before the six were taken from the dark tunnel they had been in leaving behind the single knife and a torch as the knife was not picked up, and the torch was claimed by the dungeon and so could not leave. 

I didn't know what was happening. One moment I was walking along with Charm and then the next I was on the ground with pain all over, then Charm was talking to the other four humans we encountered about something, and finally the count went down to 15% and my tether to reality was rubbed into a mess of colors and tastes. 

What I mean by taste is that the only thing I remember is that after talking to the human called Dan and my vision becoming a haze of strangeness I remember a dark place and a few people with bright red eyes and the taste of something amazing. 

As I got more and more of that strangely amazing taste I felt my senses were growing clearer and when I looked at my Blood Count percentage  it was back up to 50%, but when I tried to let go and stop drinking whatever it was I couldn’t. Like my body was physically keeping me from letting go and I was only able to slow down around 75%. Another twenty-five percent later I was able to stop and what was happening. I looked down to see what the taste was coming from and realized that there was a large metal cross cross of bars going over my maw and a tube of sorts leading into my mouth. A thick red liquid flowing from the ceiling to wherever I was at the moment. I reached up and gripped the thing on my face and tugged but found the metal was also wrapped around my head and there was something on my neck. 

I traced the material around my head and found a weld where the bars were bent and melted together to fit snugly around my head. A swift tug on one of the welds was all it took to snap the area in two pulled the two sections apart, then I felt the thing around my neck to find a sort of collar there. 

I scratched at the material and got a slight shock in  return, so this thing wasn't something that I could just rip off without serious consequences. Great. There was a movement to the side of me and I was barely able to look over in time to see Charm come and wrap her arms around me. I sat there confused as her feline form crushed me in a hug, her curves and fur seemed to meld with my form distracting me for a moment. I stopped investigating the mask and collar that they had put on me and wrapped my arms around her as well. 

“How are you?” I asked and she broke the hug and punched me in the face, causing the mask to dent on the left side before breaking at the seams and falling to the ground with a clang. 

“That was for making me worried about you.” She growled as I rubbed my face in shock. She then she put her left hand on the same side she had punched and it started to feel better after a moment, and I was able to catch a slight glow around that area. 

“While you were out and feeding on whatever it was in that tube. I decided to take the time and practice with some of my skills and maybe form new ones.” She lifted her paw from my face and the glowing on both her paw and my muzzle receded. “I got Healing Hands and Meditation, and also leveled up a few other skills too.” 

“Can you get this collar off too?” I asked pointing to the thin metal band around my neck as she nodded and her hand flashed for a moment before the collar fell apart with five clean cuts through it’s material, only barely impacting my skin but not causing any damage even with her being so close. She must've been working hard with her control, either that or she was just a natural with that kind of magic attacks. 

“I learned that Sonic Slash can cut through almost everything, and I almost took off a limb or two trying to get it under control so I could use it like that. The humans we encountered brought us to some sort of Feeding place for Blood-suckers and left, but as soon as they did someone else came by, bound us both, and brought us here. She went over and poked the steel-like door before stepping back once. It groaned for a moment before it fell forwards and hit the ground with a loud smash in the hallway. 

“That’s cool” I said and she smiled and nodded. 

“Yeah I decided to cut at each edge until I felt it would be easy to open...didn't expect it to be that easy honestly.” I watched as Charm came back over to me and looked me over. “Are you feeling okay enough to leave now?” 

I nodded and looked at the cord that was feeding blood through it, still dripping slightly. There must’ve been a living creature or something on the other side because according to that description that came with what kind of variant I am. Those of my kind only recovered with the Live Blood of other creatures. "Do you know where we are?"

“No." She said coming over to help me off the chair that I had been strapped into before, "Let’s get out of here.” I had not other option than to lean on her and look around, eventually coming to admire her and stare, even though her fur was the color of the sun and absolutely stunning she had a much better time at hiding than I did. I made sure that my fur was not glowing anymore and joined the shadows along with her, and  barely noticed her Amber eyes glowing in the darkness. 

(New skill acquired: Stealth (Lv. 1))

That was helpful, it seemed to make moving silently easier. Even though my agility was a lot less than Charm's I was still able to keep up as she led the way out. 

How did you even find out how to leave this place Charm? I asked and realized that I just spoke to her with my mind and not my voice. 

(New skill Acquired: Telepathy (Lv. 1))

(New Special Skill Acquired: Bond (Tier 1))

(New Titles Acquired: Shadow Warrior, Fate Bound, Bloodsucker)

Can you speak to me this way now too? I asked Charm and she nodded. 

I got a new skill, special skill, and two new titles as well she said and I nodded 

I got new skills and titles as well. What do you think Bond means? I looked at her and she turned back and glanced at me but didn’t stop moving forwards through the shadows. 

I don’t know, but as Cliche as it is, it seems like we are meant to stay together. Charm said, was that glee I heard? Turning left and continuing on through the shadows I dismissed the thought and we continued on. 

Well at least we don’t have to speak aloud anymore or we would’ve been given away a long time ago I said and she nodded, her eyes bobbing just a little in acknowledgement. 

We continued to walk in silence for a while longer, with me following as she made a few more turns until we eventually got a set of stairs that lead up a ways. 

I remember this far from when I gained consciousness again, so if this isn’t the way out of here we’re either going to have to wing it or call it a loss and let ourselves be captured again. Charm said to me and I shook my head. 

Or we could always just follow the scent of whoever was here most recently. I grinned and she shrugged but nodded in agreement. Cool. Now if there is no way out above these stairs, then we’ll fight our way out and follow the scents we can. 

I followed as Charm went up the stairs, neither of our footsteps could be heard as we traversed into the next area of this strangely hidden-passageway, dungeon-like place. 

It took a half hour to get here but my Blood Count didn’t go down at all, so, thankfully it seemed like I would be good for a while unless I got into either a fight or something else that made me lose or use blood from my reserves. We neared the top of the stairs and it seemed that me and Charm heard it at exactly the same time. 

“Why do we have to go down to the bottom of these creepy ass tunnels just to grab two dumb ass monsters?” A male voice complained and two humans dressed in full suits of guard-like armor with shields and swords on their person came over the lip at the top of the stairs.

Me and Charm immediately split up and hid in the shadows of the stairway walls, where the darkness was the thickest. And I hoped that the fire-light of the torch that the two guards were carrying weren’t going to reveal her position. She had lighter colored fur after all, but I still had to be wary of my blood red marking’s catching any light as well. 

The older guard looked at the younger one beside him with a scowl. 

“Come on Harold you know that being a new guard was going to include boring fetch tasks. This is easy enough as any to start with and we don't have any orders to run so you should be happy that we didn’t get an investigation mission instead.” The older one scolded Harold. Who was now confirmed as a new recruit scowled back at his superior. 

Let’s try to keep out of sight and just let them pass, if they notice one of us then we may have no other choice than fighting our way out. I said to Charm and I assumed that she agreed because she didn’t reply, but I did see the flicker of her eyes for a moment. She wasn't happy with it but she was willing to go along with my plan. The two passed us and the torch light barely caught Charm’s feet, but she reacted quickly and went to a farther position before they noticed. 

Actually it didn’t look like they noticed at all, they were both staring straight ahead and the sides of their helmets might have actually helped hide Charm’s golden feet from view. Not even the older one, who I imagined was more experienced at things like these reacted at all. With their scents memorized and with them past the bottom lip of the stairs we moved again, getting over and past the top of the stairs soundlessly. I looked at the direction they had gone and then from whence they came from and wondered how long it took to get out. 

Do you have at east one of their scents just in case? I asked Charm and she nodded. 

I could smell them from when they were at the top of the stairway and I’m guessing you got their scent around the first third she said grinning and I lowly growled in annoyance, of course her sense of smell was better than mine. 

Okay stop bragging and let’s just get out of here. I pushed ahead and continued in front of her. I don't know why, but I had a nagging feeling that she was enjoying this.

I would've put this as an author's note but I don't know how well links can transfer over if I do that, but I'll be experimenting. Anyways  hope that you enjoyed this chapter and the main thing that I wanted to announce was that I now have a Patreon account up and while there are higher tiers I reccomend only joining the lowest ($1) tier as I don't actually have any advance chapters out on there as of yet, but I'll be working on that for this and my other stories:

https://www.patreon.com/Cr1mson_Fangs?